Pellicles

I've never had a pellicle collapse on it's own. I always end up punching through it to rack. When I say never, I think the longest I've let a fermenter go is just under 5 years.

 

Guys, stop it. You're making my mouth water.


I never thought I would see pictures like this and say something like that.

 

When I saw my first pellicle ever in a bucket that I had stepped some dregs up in I couldn't imagine wanting to drink that beer. Since then it is amazing to watch these develop and change over time anticipating the resulting beer.

 

thanks a bunch! that's actually really helpful.

 

Stop feeding your pellicles steroids, spinach, and protein drinks!

 

Here's my pellicle ****:

Base sour dry hopped with Meridian:


Framboise at 7 weeks since Fruit addition:


Plums at 2.5 weeks:



And a shot down the neck of the dry hop:

 

Added cherries on Sunday. Looking tasty already.

 

Wow, what a difference a day makes:

 

How does everyone have a nice clean carboy with the pellicle formed? I currently have four sours going and all the sides are covered in junk from the fermenting process. Also is it a good idea to change out my blow off tube to get the junk out of the tubes?

 

Probably transferred to secondary fermentor. I have some in secondary, my Lambic is in primary still after 22 months, so it has gunk in the neck as well. I would swap out the blow off for an airlock at this point, no need for the tube. I believe the tube actually lets more air in than the airlock plastic, and my experience is that a container of liquid open in the heat would evaporate faster than the StarSan in an airlock.

 

I have a question about dregs...

Are y'all building them up at all or just dumping the last ounce of each bottle in?

 

Both. Sometimes I just toss in the dregs after killing a bottle. Other times I build them up and pitch them. Depends on what I am looking for. I have Flander's Red type sour going now that was fermented clean, then in secondary it got the slurry for a couple month's old 1/2 gallon starter of dregs from Crooked Stave, Boon, and my BoS Lambic.

 

I do my primary ferment in a 60l Spiedel. The carboy photos are all secondary ferments.

 

Bad picture but dark saison with HF Edith dregs on left, multiple bottle dregs on right.

 

I just brewed a Lambic, I left very, very limited room for any pellicles to form.. Maybe 2,3 inches. Should I transfer this to a bigger carboy, maybe 6.5 gallons or can I leave this to ride for the year?

 

Pellcles can be very thin -- like 1-2mm or upto maybe an inch if it forms before primary ferment is finished.

 

Melange of RR Temptation, CS Surette, Brett Trois, and Seizoen Bretta

 

I'm getting a beer boner looking at all of this pellicle ****!!!

 

Hahahahahaha this will teach me not to open the fermenter when the yeast is at work.